Thank you, honourable members.
Taxes are not the answer. For the past several months we've been focused on these senseless federal tax proposals. It's an unfortunate distraction, because the real problem is not the amount of tax that the federal government collects but the amount of money that it spends. Every business owner and every individual person is willing to pay their fair share of municipal, provincial, and federal tax; what grates on us, though, is how inefficiently it is spent.
We know there is waste. We know there is little innovation, and we know that governments are afraid of unions. The level of debt in this country and in this province is staggering, and it seems to be the dirty little secret that every politician is afraid to face. The federal government is liable in this regard. Canada's debt is $652,303,967,376.95. That was as of Friday, so it's probably gone up a bit more since then.
Each Canadian's share is $17,898.98. This is only the federal portion. In 2016-17, interest payments on the federal debt totalled $25 billion, which is more than what Ottawa spends on transfers to Canadian families in the form of children's benefits—$22 billion. It's also equivalent to the federal government's planned budgetary deficit of $25 billion. To put it differently, in the absence of the federal interest payments, Ottawa could wipe out its deficit this year, despite its marked increase in program spending.
Now let's add in the sub-sovereign debt. If we combine our sovereign debt—the federal government's—and the sub-sovereign debt, we have one of the worst levels of debt per capita amongst the advanced economies of the world. Each Canadian is not only responsible for servicing the federal debt; we have to service the provincial and local government debt too. When we add up just the interest payments on the various forms of governments across the country—federal, provincial, and local—the total in 2015-16 was $63 billion, approximately equal to the $64 billion Canada spent on primary and secondary education in 2013-14, which is the latest year of available data.
This charade over the past few months by finance minister Bill Morneau has been a great distraction for him and his officials in finance. Instead of trying to generate more revenue, why not better spend the money you already have? Where is the commitment to cost savings? Where is the commitment to reducing debt? Governments should be much more meagre with our money and our children's money, and now, I fear, regretfully, our grandchildren's money.
We don't have the luxury of optimism for the future without commitment. The business people who I represent at the St. John's Board of Trade want Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada to be successful. They are committed to innovating and improving. They have chosen to invest here. They have chosen to employ people here. They have chosen to raise their families here. They are part of the solution. Are you?
Thank you.